In the last decade, technological advancement in cement industry has taken place with a steady uniform pace. In grinding area, close circuit pre-grinder in combination with close circuit tube mill has gained considerable popularity especially for capacity upgradation

The major challenge for the technology suppliers has been with technologies, which are sized for higher capacities; but when the plants have to be operated at reduced capacities (due to market conditions), they are expected to maintain the same efficiency parameters.

With the ever-increasing demand for quality products and stringent environmental policies and regulations, today's manufacturing sector has been challenged like never before to put forward the right operational and business framework to achieve productivity with optimising cost, whereas consistently maintaining the quality of the end product.

In the mature market of industrial packaging, cement manufacturers have made the switch to sustainable bags in a bid to enhance protection and improve handleability, increasing all-weather shelf life and curbing messy seepages.

Cement plants are facing increasingly tough requirements for sample analysis quality and complexity, and for sample throughput. This is partly a result of environmental regulations placing stricter controls on cement production, both in terms of pollution and energy consumption.

Automation and robotics are not new to the Indian industry, but judicious use of human beings along with automation is the call of the day. thyssenkrupp shares its experience about laboratory automation.

Emami Cement, which began operations at its integrated cement manufacturing plant in Chhattisgarh in July this year, expects to clock revenues of around Rs 500 crore for a full year of operations ending March 2017.

Any story on mining will not be complete without covering the latest happenings at the Rio Tinto mines in Australia. This is the mine which is transforming the mining industry through innovations like driver-less trucks and many others.